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        %IMPRISONED BY ALIENATIVE IDEALS AND VALUES 880304

     Jack  is  an idealist.  He tries very hard to live in
keeping with his highest ideals, values and principles. He
seeks  to be perfect in his conformity to what he knows to
be good and worthy of respect.   Because of his compulsive
idealism he is tragically imprisoned by his ideals, values
and principles.   He cannot  perceive how they lead him to
behave   in   ways   which   are tragically alienative and
disintegrative. Alienation and  disintegration are not key
concepts  in  Jack's  way  of  viewing the world; they are
matters of little concern to Jack.

     When    our    ideals   and   values   lead   us   to
ignore     alienation  and disintegration,  we are  unable
to  evaluate  the consequences  of  our  highest    ideals
and values.    We are blinded to consequences.   We cannot
see.   We are in a dark prison of dark ideals and  values.
Trying  to  be  faithful to  what  we   believe   is   not
enough.   We must seek to honestly see the consequences of
what  we  believe.   If what we believe causes us  to   be
dishonestly  dedicated  to our beliefs in  spite  of   all
else,     we  are  in  prison.  We cannot  escape  without
accepting some kind  of  honest help.

     If  we are in such  a  prison  we  are not likely  to
be    willing to trust others to help us escape.   We  are
likely  to  be  suspicious  of  all  people  who   do  not
agree with our ideals and values,   and  to regard them as
an enemy against whom we must always be on the defense. We
are  likely  to   be  compulsively  defensive   with  self
righteous  convictions in  the  correctness  of  our views
and fears.    The prison has idealistic bars which bar our
escape from our idealism.  Our idealism  is  not a  ground
for hope,  but for despair,  because it   imprisons    us,
and prevents  us  from seeing its consequences.

     Idealism      should     be    suspect    when     it
blocks    communication.   Such idealism is likely  to  be
concealing  its  own alienative consequences  by  blocking
communication. To    conceal     its     own    alienative
consequences  it needs  to  block   intimacy.   Beware  of
idealism  which  blocks intimacy.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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